I just started playing the game. I left the place from which my character started and noticed that there are several Kel Dor under arrest in the city. Why is this? Is this something that happens to starting players?

Don't let him get to you, Tahil. As long as you have not been arrested then you have nothing to worry about. There could be several reasons for the arrests placed on the players you've witnessed. I do not know your specific case but there is a good possibility that not all the arrests are related. Nevertheless, it is really hard to say.

Sometimes people join the game and never do anything and have to be arrested and moved out of buildings, sometimes people go on mad arresting binges, sometimes racist governments (NIO, Empire) arrest or execute other races because they are evil. Or those may be NPC builders that had to be arrested for some reason or another.

As Dayyn said, welcome, and don't worry about it, you are in Trade Federation territory and as far as I can tell, they don't randomly kill people under normal circumstances.

Best guess, I'd say either they were arrested by the GE when they temporarily took control of the Trade Fed's sector. Or they're construction NPCs, like Rogren said.

It is fairly rare for a new, active player to be arrested and executed without a change to appeal to the arrester that they ARE new and active. Rare, but not unheard of.

I'd highly recommend that you look over the Arrest/Execute section of the Rules, under Combat. In fact, the Rules in general are a recommended read, and probably also the Guide, which is aimed at new starters such as yourself.

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"May the Grace of Ara go with you, and His Vengeance be wrought upon your enemies."

not quite, Hal, Dorin is whithin the Fakir sector - entirely controled by the Empire (bar the Dorin system itself).

The arrests took place several weeks ago, by Mr Powers working under the GE. At the time, Dorin was controlled by a non-government faction, which then handed over planetary control to the Trade Federation in order to prevent any further arrests.

Several Builders and abandoned players where caught before this happened though, and those are the ones you can see arrested currently, Tahil.

your perfectly safe under the current administration of the planet, no matter which faction you decide to join, or your race.